TOPEKA, Kan. – Washburn University athletics mourns the loss of Washburn graduate and champion for Title IX Billie Jean Moore.
                                    
Moore was the first coach in women's basketball history to lead teams from two different schools to national championships. She coached at California State-Fullerton from 1969 to 1977 where she won the AIAW national title in 1970 in her first year with the team.
 
"Moore was an early leader and a pioneer of Title IX," said Washburn athletic director Loren Ferré. "While she was not a student-athlete at Washburn since women's sports had not started yet, her love for sports and her pushing for changes helped pave the way for countless women's student-athletes at Washburn and around the nation."
 
She went on to take over the program at UCLA team from 1977 to 1993 and claimed the AIAW national title in 1978. Her overall college coaching record is 436-196. On February 22, 1991, Moore became the eighth women's Division I college basketball head coach with 400 wins after defeating the University of Oregon on their home court in Eugene.
 
She was the head coach for the first-ever United States Olympic women's basketball team in 1976 and led the Americans to the silver medal featuring players like Pat Summitt, Ann Meyers, Drysdale and Nancy Lieberman.
 
Moore was inducted into the Washburn Athletic Hall of Fame in 1978.
 
Moore died on Thursday, Dec. 15 at her home in Fullerton, Calif. She was 79.